Throughout the world, military and homeland security forces face an increasing need to provide safety and security to troops and high-value assets. Wireless surveillance systems are emerging as a way of meeting this need. However, when developing a communications system for military application, a variety of obstacles need to be overcome. For example, to achieve an extended VHF communication range, existing solutions require relay devices which are separate from the sensor devices. To the extent that some of these remotely deployed devices act as both sensors and relays, these devices are not configured to operate in a manner which conserves power resources.
Therefore, it is desirable to develop an unattended sensor which may be configured to operate in either a sensor mode or a relay mode. The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.